History Main / DeadlyGraduation

* The main premise of Monokuma's DeadlyGame in the ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' series: Lock a class of high school students in a ClosedCircle, where the only way to leave is to kill one of your classmates and get away with it. If the other students correctly identify you as the culprit (which is decided by a vote), then you will be given an extravagant, [[DeathByIrony personalized]] execution as punishment for your crime. If they get it wrong, however, you get to "graduate" and go free... while ''everybody else'' gets executed in your place. [[spoiler:Subverted by the fact that every single "graduation" [[HopeCrusher ends up being a trap]]. The [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc first one]] would result in the "Blackened" being let loose into a VillainWorld filled with [[BrainwashedAndCrazy murderous lunatics]], the [[VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair second]] would result in them potentially being preyed on by the [[AIIsACrapshoot evil AI]] [[GrandTheftMe possessing their victims]], and in the [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony third]] there simply is no outside for them to go to.]]

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/TheBourneUltimatum https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bournes_beginning.png]]]]

* '''Manga/{{Naruto}}':

SubTrope of InvoluntaryBattleToTheDeath. See also ARealManIsAKiller and TestedOnHumans. For a test of ruthlessness outside of training, see IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten.

* ''Confessional'' by Creator/JackHiggins. The Jack Higgins novel ''Confessional'' starts with an IRA terrorist being captured during an attempt to plant a bomb. He's actually in a SimulatedUrbanCombatArea behind the Iron Curtain and the KGB general in charge [[YouHaveFailedMe orders him shot on the spot]]. He kills his captors instead--it's then revealed that one of the fake policemen was an actor turned dissident who was presumably allowed to work there as an alternative to the gulag.
* ''The Dead Can Wait'' by Robert Ryan. A German FemmeFataleSpy says that for the passing out test at the ''Sie Wolfe'' camp they had to hunt down live targets, and in her case the target was [[ShootYourMate another female trainee]] who hadn't come up to scratch, [[YouKnowTooMuch but couldn't be released because the camp was top secret.]] This was during World War One when women were not expected to kill, so this trope was meant to get rid of any feelings of feminine squeamishness. It might have worked ''too'' well in her case, as she's psychopathic and kills a member of her UndergroundRailroad based on the mere suspicion she might also have outlived her usefulness.

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* Killing your teammates used to be part of the Village in the Mist's initiation in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', until Zabuza decided to be a smartass and kill '''all''' the other graduates...''before he was even old enough to actually qualify''. They probably couldn't spare any future ninja past that point. Danzo used this as a graduation for his ANBU program in the anime.
* ''Anime/BurstAngel'' has the Genocide Angels killing each other [[ThereCanBeOnlyOne until only one remains]]... or at least they were supposed to: their final test is interrupted, they end up scattered around the world, and now Jo is pestered by the two remaining survivors who are there to kill her.

* In the [[Characters/NewGods Granny Goodness]] backstory her final exam was to kill the loyal dog she had trained. She avoided this by killing the examiner, explaining to Darkseid that the dog would be more useful to him than the examiner. Darkseid later forced her to complete the test by siccing the dog on her. Darkseid was impressed enough that she was given [[TheDragon her current position in his organization]].
* ''ComicBook/SinCity'': It's implied that this is the final ritual for all prospective assassins in the MurderInc division within Wallenquist's organization. Deliah AKA "Blue Eyes" murdered the only man she ever loved after reuniting with him on the Colonel's orders to prove her loyalty.

* In the ''Film/{{Kingsman}}'' fanfic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/7589053/chapters/17268946 Trials]]'', when faced with the test mentioned below, Eggsy [[TakeAThirdOption takes a third option]]: he shoots Arthur, the leader of Kingsman and the one administering the test, instead. [[spoiler: This takes him off the Kingsman trials but puts him on the fast track to become the next ''Arthur'', as a knight does what he's told, but a ''king'' does what is ''right''.]] Needless to say, Arthur was less than pleased with this turn of events.

* The [[Film/NakedWeapon next film in the Naked trilogy]] does this particularly graphically. After years of assassin training, Madam M has half of the trainees take out the other half. Then the next day, the survivors compete to the death until only one is standing (though Madam M decides to cut the massacre short with the final three).

* Not exactly "good and innocent", but after the Joker kills Gambol in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', he talks about how his organization is "small, but growing". Then he mentions he only has room for one more member at the moment... as he snaps a pool cue over his knee and drops the sharper half between three of Gambol's men. "Make it quick."
* Subverted in ''Film/RemoWilliamsTheAdventureBegins''. Remo is given his first assassination assignment, which involves killing some old Korean guy. Who proceeds to DodgeTheBullet several times, casually remove the magazine from Remo's gun, then NonchalantDodge every attempt by Remo to lay hands on him. The old guy is Chiun, master of Sinanju, and now his ''real'' training will begin.
* One of the tests in ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'' is to shoot the dog the candidate had partnered with and cared for throughout the test. Failing to do so means they're booted from the tests. [[spoiler: The gun's loaded with blanks.]] Eggsy failed to shoot JB, but after the Valentine crisis, he's allowed to be a Kingsman anyway. In ''Film/KingsmanTheGoldenCircle'' Eggsy used his knowledge of this test to try to traumatize an amnesiac Harry into regaining his memories by accusing him of being a dog murderer.
-->"[[spoiler:It was a fucking blank!]] I would never hurt Mr. Pickle!"
* ''Film/TheBourneUltimatum''. In a flashback to his training for the Treadstone program, Bourne is told to shoot an unknown hooded man without any explanation whatsoever except that this act will result in "saving American lives".
* ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron''. Wanda gives Natasha Romanov (Black Widow) a vision of her time in the [[SpySchool Red Room]]. One scene involves Natasha training to shoot pistols at a target, then the target becomes a hooded man whimpering in the chair he's bound to. Worse is the [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror look of indifference]] on the faces of her fellow trainees.

:: There are of course countless variations of that joke, from CIA recruitment to SAS training, and from strangling to PistolWhipping to [[ComedicSociopathy beating him to death with his chair...]]

* The Unsullied eunuch slave soldiers in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' are given a puppy to raise that after a year they have to kill. To actually become Unsullied they are sent to kill a slave child. It's mentioned that they have a harder time with the puppy test than the child one, and those that fail are killed, and fed to the surviving puppies.
* On ''Literature/{{Gor}}'' this is the final test to join the Caste of Assassins.

* In the Literature/ForgottenRealms novels ''Literature/WarOfTheSpiderQueen'' the [[spoiler:rebirth of Lloth]] is described in a prologue: you have thousands of spiders, they suddenly start killing and eating each other to gain power, but if one grows too strong, others will team up to get it down, until only the 8 most cunning ones are remaining. [[spoiler:They then serve as the eight spider aspect avatars of Lloth.]]
* The ''Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures'' novel ''No Future'' features a U.N.I.T. soldier who has to do the puppy version (with a rabbit) when she was training for the British Army. The Brigadier's reaction is that the people who trained her were bastards.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''
** In the episode [[Recap/SupernaturalS02E21AllHellBreaksLoosePartOne "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part One" (S02, E21)]], the Yellow-Eyed Demon brings all of the Special Children who have developed psychic powers to a ghost town where they are manipulated to fight each other until only one remains, so he can determine who is the strongest.
** In "[[Recap/SupernaturalS12E17TheBritishInvasion The British Invasion]]" (S12, E17) it's revealed that Doctor Hess forced young Mick Davies to fight his best friend to the death in order to graduate from British Men of Letters training.

* ''Series/FlemingTheManWhoWouldBeBond''. When Ian Fleming undergoes the commando course at Camp X, he's told of the K Protocol, a final secret test an agent must undergo before being sent into occupied Europe. Later Fleming wants to be put in charge of a frontline commando unit. His boss Admiral Godfrey will only agree if he passes the K Protocol, which turns out to be: go to a room and kill a man. "Now you know what the K stands for." Fleming hesitates at the moment of firing and is disarmed by his intended victim, who pulls the trigger on Fleming's revolver...fortunately [[ItWorksBetterWithBullets the bullets are duds]]. Admiral Godfrey tells Fleming not to feel too bothered, as he didn't pass the K Protocol either.
* On ''Series/{{Blindspot}}'' it's revealed that the secret South African program Remy and Roman were in forced the children to care for rabbits and then gave the order to kill them. If a student didn't kill their rabbit, they were forced to watch their rabbit being horribly tortured and mutilated in front of them as punishment. Remy was the first to obey the order and snap her rabbit's neck which her instructors assumed meant she was a born killer. [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation However there's reason to believe given her personality that she did it to give the rabbit a quick and merciful death.]]
* ''Series/TheAvengers1960s''. In "Invasion of the Earthmen", the villain is training students to conquer space, including a survival exercise involving two students where only one is allowed to return. Meanwhile, our heroes are infiltrating the school and end up getting into a fight with the students. Steed ties one up, and he watches horrified as the other student approaches him...only to cut him free. Turns out the exercise has been cancelled as everyone has been ordered to kill the heroes instead
* ''Series/{{Treadstone}}''
** John Bentley has the "shoot the hooded man as a final test" as in ''Film/TheBourneUltimatum'', in this case three fellow CIA agents to check his conditioning as a Soviet ManchurianAgent in 1973. While carrying out the kill he hallucinates that they are Vietcong soldiers, but a later flashback scene shows he was aware of what was being done to him beforehand and is dragged off for the final test while begging his captors not to make him do it.
** While brainwashed, Bentley was also required to torture both fellow CIA operatives and hardcore criminals rounded up by the KGB--the latter because they would require extensive torture before cracking.
** In the present day Treadstone agent Doug [=McKenna=] has a dream of being chained up underwater, and [[ColdEquation fighting another man in similar straits]] for the key to release his chains before he drowns. He wakes up and examines a [[OrWasItADream faint circular cuff scar around his ankle]].

* According to Nathyrra's backstory in ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights: Hordes of the Underdark'', it's common among Drow assassins as well.

* The main premise of Monokuma's DeadlyGame in the ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' series: Lock a class of high school students in a ClosedCircle, where the only way to leave is to kill one of your classmates and get away with it. If the other students correctly identify you as the culprit (which is decided by a vote), then you will be given an extravagant, [[DeathByIrony personalized]] execution as punishment for your crime. If they get it wrong, however, you get to "graduate" and go free... while ''everybody else'' gets executed in your place. [[spoiler: Subverted by the fact that every single "graduation" [[HopeCrusher ends up being a trap]]. The [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc first one]] would result in the "Blackened" being let loose into a VillainWorld filled with [[BrainwashedAndCrazy murderous lunatics]], the [[VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair second]] would result in them potentially being preyed on by the [[AIIsACrapshoot evil AI]] [[GrandTheftMe possessing their victims]], and in the [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony third]] there simply is no outside for them to go to.]]

* ''Myth/TheScholomance'', from Romanian mythology, is said to accept classes of ten students -- but only nine graduation. The last doesn't make it out of graduation but is kept by {{Satan}}, who runs the school, as payment for the whole class's tuition. And while he doesn't kill the tenth student, he does enslave that student for all eternity by making him or her ride around on a dragon while controlling the weather.

* ''The Dead Can Wait'' by Robert Ryan. A German FemmeFataleSpy says that for the passing out test at the ''Sie Wolfe'' camp they had to hunt down live targets, and in her case the target was [[ShootYourMate another female trainee]] who hadn't come up to scratch, [[YouKnowTooMuch but couldn't be released because the camp was top secret.]] This was during World War One when women were not expected to kill, so this trope was meant to get rid of any feelings of feminine squeamishness.

* ''Confessional'' by Creator/JackHiggins. The Jack Higgins novel ''Confessional'' starts with an IRA terrorist being captured during an attempt to plant a bomb. He's actually in a SimulatedUrbanCombatArea behind the Iron Curtain and the KGB general in charge [[YouHaveFailedMe orders him shot on the spot]]. He kills his captors instead.

* The Dead Can Wait'' by Robert Ryan. A German FemmeFataleSpy says that for the passing out test at the ''Sie Wolfe'' camp they had to hunt down live targets, and in her case the target was [[ShootYourMate another female trainee]] who hadn't come up to scratch, [[YouKnowTooMuch but couldn't be released because the camp was top secret.]] This was during World War One when women were not expected to kill, so this trope was meant to get rid of any feelings of feminine squeamishness.

* ''Myth/TheScholomance'', from Romanian mythology, is said to accept classes of ten students -- but only nine graduation. The last doesn't make it out of graduation but is kept by the {{Devil}}, who runs the school, as payment for the whole class's tuition. And while he doesn't kill the tenth student, he does enslave that student for all eternity by making him or her ride around on a dragon while controlling the weather.

* ''LightNovel/TheWorldsFinestAssassin'': Lugh [[ReincarnateInAnotherWorld in his second life]] gets one of these from his father as part of, rather than the end of, his assassin training, of a convicted woman in their feudal domain's prison, being assured of her guilt beforehand. In order to be merciful, Lugh cuts her to let her bleed out relatively painlessly, but after she goes into a screaming VillainousBreakdown, he just throws a knife at her to shut her up.